There is a known conventional technology of a control system in which apparatuses installed in homes are connected, via a gateway, to a control server on a network and the control server controls each of the apparatuses. There is a known technology, as an example of such control system, in which, when a setting of an apparatus is changed, the apparatus sends a notification about the changed setting content to a control server and the control server controls other apparatuses in accordance with the changed setting content indicated by the notification that has been received from the target apparatus. See for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-170171 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-043161.
However, with the technology in which notifications indicating the changed setting content are sequentially sent to the control server every time a setting is changed in the target apparatus, when settings are continuously changed, a notification indicating a setting content that has not been determined is also sent to the control server. Consequently, there is a problem in that the control server performs an unwanted process. Furthermore, a notification from an apparatus in which the setting content has not been firmly determined is unwanted traffic to the control server.
For example, an example of a known air conditioning apparatus installed in a home includes an air conditioning apparatus in which setting temperatures are set in stages by pressing an up/down button. Furthermore, a conceivable example of a service provided by a control system includes a service in which, when a setting temperature that has been set in an air conditioning apparatus is changed, the setting temperature in the other air conditioning apparatuses installed in the same home is also changed in accordance with the changed setting temperature.
At this point, when a user changes a setting temperature to a target temperature by continuously pressing the up/down button, some air conditioning apparatus sequentially sends, in addition to the final setting temperature to the control server, notifications about setting temperatures of intermediate stages. Consequently, because the control server controls the other air conditioning apparatuses in accordance with the notification that indicates the setting temperature that has not been determined, the control server performs wasteful control. Furthermore, intermediate notifications are unwanted traffic for the network.